Ah, soon Kaikeyí's ruthless hand

Has won the empire of the land,

And made my guiltless Ráma flee

Dressed like some lonely devotee.

Herein what profit has the queen,

Whose eye delights in havoc, seen?

Me also, me 'twere surely good

To banish to the distant wood,

To dwell amid the shades that hold

My famous son with limbs like gold.